Improvement in nails



WITNESSES. INVENTOR.

Unrrnn S'rA'rns PATENT FFICE.

ZIMRI I. PRATT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MARY E. PRATT, OF SAMEPLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN NAILS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 151,511, dated June 2,1874 application filed April 29, 1874.

To alt whom fit may concern:

Be it known thatI, ZIMRI I. PRATT, of Chicago, in the county of Cook andState of Illinois, have invented a new, useful, and Improved Nail forVire Fences, and for similar purposes, of which invention the followingis a full, clear, and exact description, which will enable othersskilled in the art to which my invention appertains to make and use thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming a parthereof, and in which- Figure l represents the manner in which myimproved nail is applied to use, and Fin. 2 a perspective view of thenail.

Like letters ot' reference indicate like parts.

The object of my invention is to make a cheap and serviceable nailespecially adapted to be used for the purpose of connecting wires to theposts ot' wire fences, and for similar purposes; and to that end myinvention consists of a two-pronged nail stamped or cut from sheetmetal, one prong being considerably shorter than the other, and thespace between the said prongs being the narrowest near the head of thenail, substantially as hereinafter described and set forth.

In the drawing, A represents a post of a wire fence, and B is myimproved nail. Ihenail B is cut,^stamped, or struck from sheet metalsutl'iciently rigid, when made into a nail of the forni shown, to bedriven into hard wood. The nail is continuous across its head, but itslower part is divided into two prongs, one of which is considerablyshorter than the other, and both of which are tapered oil' toward theirlower ends, as shown, thus making the space between the prongs narrowerat the top than at the bottom.

The manner of arranging or driving the nail, so as to sustain or supportthe wires of a wire fence, is clearly illustrated in Fie. l. By makingthe nail in this manner, and in this form, it may be driven into hardwood, and will retain the wire in its proper position with relation tothe posts. By making one prong shorter thanv the other, the nail may bemore readily driven tha-n if both prongs were of t-he same length, theshorter prong entering the post but a comparatively short distance. Theshorter pron g may be made much more pointed or slender than the longerone, the only function of the former being to prevent the wire frombeing lifted from the ynail. By making the space between the prongsnarrower at the top than at the bottom, the wire may be either iirmlyheld or allowed to lie loosely in the said space, as may be desired, andaccording to the distance the nail is driven, into the post, it beingunderstood that the size of the. nail may be varied to correspond to'thesize of ditferent wires. There is also little or no waste of metal inthe manufacture of these nails, for the reason that, as each nail iscut, the eut edges of the sheet constitute edges ot' the nails next cutor stamped, as represented by the dotted lines in Fig. 2. The nail is,therefore, cheap a-nd serviceable, and well adapted to the purposes forwhich it is intended.

I do not here claim a two-pronged nail, broadly 5 but Having thusdescribed my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is-,

A new article of manufacture, consisting of a two-pronged nail cut orstamped troni sheet metal, one of the prongs being longer than theother, and the space between the prongs being narrower at the top thanat the bottom, substantially as shown and described, and for thepurposes set forth.

ZIMRI I. PRATT.

fitnesses FRANcrs F. WARREN, N. C. GRIDLEY.

